So there is this literary agent who works with Hispanic authors (such as myself). I had contacted her a couple of months ago, before coming to the US, to see if she would be interested in trying to sell translations of my three books (all of them written and published in Spanish). She said she could be interested so I sent her the three books. Yesterday I wrote her to ask if she'd had time to read them and what she thought. Sadly, this was (the relevant part of) her answer:

"Unfortunately I don’t think I am the right person to place these books with a US publisher at this time.  I am finding that publishers here are quite limited in the books they pick up from abroad and only publish books that have a very strong hook and an unusual and very salable premise."

I believe her. I knew the market for translations would be much more limited here than for original books. But... none of my works has a very strong hook or a very salable premise, it seems. That hurts a bit.

Oh well, it's not my first rejection, although it's the clearest one. Now it's back to pushing for publication in my original market, finding another agent, translating my unpublished material, changing genres, writing in English for the first time... too many things to do/try and too little time to weep, I think.

I wouldn't take it too hard, some things are culturally based. For example, (and I am pulling this out of my ass) America went through a phase where it was hell bent on aliens and the paranormal. They protested the white house, everything for the truth. Now in the midst of that if you had a book about war you'd be turned away, because at that point in time the war was over and America needed something new to fixate on, which was aliens.

I learned this off TV last night ha ha.

So my point is....it might not be "salable" and "hooking" for America audiences but it might be amazingly salable and hooking for others. So don't give up! There is the UK and AUS to look into first ha ha .

Yeah, I'll keep expanding my horizons! And also writing different things. Right now I have another book for young adults that I'd like to shop. There are aliens in it, am I already late for that?

Yes and no, I mean you're late for the boom but it's still extremely popular. I watch Alien documentaries all the time ha ha. NASA is still sending things into space. There are still sightings.

Bunny better hope the alien train isn't missed with how long she's taking to write her book, in which the aliens are the villain that threatens earth!

I pretty much agree on all points; your book is probably not bad, it's just that culturally your book is better suited to the one it's come from. She's also most likely looking for books that fit a very specific genre and writing style because she has an audience and market for it, introducing a new style is risky and might not work (think one trick pony). Trying to fit into what works for her would be a nightmare, so find someone who's looking for your sort of book when you feel you can try again.

Kimberley (09:51pm Mon, May  4, 2015)

Bunny better hope the alien train isn't missed with how long she's taking to write her book, in which the aliens are the villain that threatens earth!

I pretty much agree on all points; your book is probably not bad, it's just that culturally your book is better suited to the one it's come from. She's also most likely looking for books that fit a very specific genre and writing style because she has an audience and market for it, introducing a new style is risky and might not work (think one trick pony). Trying to fit into what works for her would be a nightmare, so find someone who's looking for your sort of book when you feel you can try again.

Yeah, you're probably right! I think she might have a point, though. I wouldn't say my books have overly original premises; I see how an agent could read them and conclude that they haven't enough "edge" to be attractive to publishers. (The unpublished one, the one with aliens, is more original in its premise, I think.)

Also, as my books are written in Spanish, trying to sell them to publishers here is more of a hassle. I had my hopes up with this particular agent because she specifically works with Hispanic authors, and she had told me that she could read the material as is and get it translated if she thought it was sellable. Now I'll probably have to pony up some money for a professional translation.

Thanks for your thoughts! And yes, I'm already looking for another agent.

I think what Kimberley meant is this woman, for example, might be looking for a very very very specific type of work within a genre. Like if it's a fantasy maybe she's specifically looking for something cute and fluffy and you've written The Hobbit, for example. Or maybe she's looking for space craft star trek/star gate kind of thing and you've given her x-files meets space aliens in space. You see what I mean?

In other words your book, the content, etc aren't the problem...it's that her market doesn't want it. That doesn't mean no one does just that a small segment she is in cahoots with doesn't.

Have you thought about self-publishing them? Putting them on the Kindle marketplace would be easy enough to do, but you would have to either learn how to format it properly or hire someone to do so.

I would also definitely tell you to contact other agents. Very few authors actually get picked up by the first agent they find. I'd try a bunch of other ones, including those that want to sell the Spanish version here in the US. There are many people in this country who stick to Spanish rather than learning to read in English.

That's good advice, polgara. I'll start pointing in that direction!

I can lend you some starter help in this direction, check out these topics!

[INFO] Publishers, and Agencies to AVOID

[INFO] On Agents and Publishers

4 Reasons You Should Advertise Your Work on Project Wonderful <Be sure to read

Thanks! I'm checking out those links right now. I had glanced at them before, but I was busy at the time.